Some desktop and notebook barebones drives will have their warranties slashed from 5 years to 1 year.

Last week, Western Digital revealed that it was cutting the warranty on its Caviar Blue/Green and Scorpio Blue drives from three years to two years. Now, it looks like Seagate just couldn't stand by and let Western Digital have all fun when it comes to cutting hard drive warranties.

The Register is reporting that Seagate is upping the ante by slashing some warranties from five years down to one year. Here are some of the "highlights" of the warranty cuts:

Constellation 2 and ES.2 drives: 5 years reduced to 3 years

Barracuda and Barracuda Green drives: 5 years reduced to 1 year

Barracuda XT: 5 years reduced to 3 years

Momentus 2.5-inch (5400 and 7200rpm): 5 years reduced to 1 year

Momentus XT: 5 years reduced to 3 years

The new warranty policy will go into effect on December 31, 2011. According to The Register, Seagate made this move "to be more consistent with those commonly applied throughout the consumer electronics and technology industries."

By aligning to current industry standards Seagate can continue to focus its investments on technology innovation and unique product features that drive value for our customers rather than holding long-term reserves for warranty returns."

If manufacturers and consumers ever had any doubts before about embracing solid state drive (SSD) technology, maybe now is the time to start making the shift to rid us all of spinning media.

I have been running half a dozen of the WD green 1.0 and 2.0 TB drives for a couple years now. Not a single problem with any of then so far. I have even so fatr put a pair of 3tb drives in my NAS in Raid 0 (I have an automated backup runs twice a week). It has ALL my household data on it.

Been solid as a rock for about 2 years now. On top of these my main system has a pair of 1TB WD blacks running as well for the past 3 years.

Perhaps you have some input power conditioning issues? Dirty power will kill drives pretty darn fast.